considered, but I can't get any speed out of it. Maybe you can."

"I'll try, at any rate," returned Jack, as he did, making better time
than Percival had done, and handling the boat with greater dexterity.

"H'm! I believe you could get speed out of a canal-boat," said Dick,
as they sped along. "There's a nasty looking cloud coming down from
Thunder Mountain, Jack. Are you afraid of it?"

"No, not much, although I wouldn't like to see some of those boys too
far out if it cuts up rough on the river. There's young Smith out
in his boat, by the way. I think we had better warn him."

At that moment Herring and Merritt came along in their boat, and
Herring said in a tone of disdain:

"That boat of yours is pretty enough to look at, Percival, but she's
of no more use than a society girl in the kitchen. Want a tow?"

Jack passed the other boat with ease, although they were doing their
best, and called out to young Smith:

"Come in, Jesse W., there will be trouble on the river in a few
minutes, and you will be better off on shore."

"Oh, he will depend on the name of his boat, which is bigger than the
boat," said Billy Manners, one of the chief funmakers of the Hilltop
boys, who was coming along with another boy in a motor-boat. "Young
J.W. is full of pluck."